Stratton HR prepares ITC Travel Group for take-off during successful two-year partnership.  

Stratton HR is getting ready to hand the reins back to travel business ITC after a successful two years leading and activating the company’s HR strategy.

ITC is a luxury travel operator established in 1974 with around 200 employees across multiple sites in the UK.  In 2021, following significant Private Equity investment, ITC approached Stratton HR to deliver a full HR Diagnostic to assess the people needs of the business. 

With a loyal and passionate workforce, but with leadership changes and foundations that needed building upon, Stratton HR identified the need to introduce systems, processes, and standards to support business growth.

Stratton HR was then instructed to deliver the people plan, which included some of the follow key projects:

  • Developing a robust HR infrastructure including Natural HR system implementation
  • Designing a strategic reward proposition, underpinned by organisational design and roles and responsibilities
  • Developing a performance framework
  • Creation of a management development programme
  • Establishing a manager’s toolkit and new online Employee Handbook 
  • Contract harmonisation to align terms and condition 
  • Rolling out an internal comms campaign “The ITC Way”

After a successful partnership, and with all of the foundations in place, Stratton HR completed their work for ITC by recruiting their in-house HR resource for them and offboarding seamlessly to the newly appointed team members.

The partnership has put in place all of the fundamentals of a leading organisation, helping management to act consistently and with long term in mind, whilst also motivating employees who now have a framework to work within.

CFO Emma Pickering said of the partnership:

“Stratton HR has been pivotal in defining our people strategy. The whole Stratton team has been fantastic; hugely knowledgeable yet pragmatic about where we were and where we needed to get to. Investing during COVID was risky but we are now in great shape and are well placed to capitalise as the world has opened up again. Not only that but our employees are happy – in a recent survey, we got an ENPS score of over 50, demonstrating the healthy culture we now have in place.”

Hannah Langston, Head of HR Support at ITC commented:

“It has been a pleasure to work with the team at ITC. We’ve been on a real journey with them. The business had a huge amount of potential, but in order to grow it really needed solid foundations from an HR perspective. The work we’ve delivered over the last two years has been fundamental in getting them ready for growth, and we’ve now reached a position where we can hand over to the in-house HR team. They know where we are if they need us and we wish them every success for the future.”

Stratton HR celebrates two-year deal with ABL 1touch as business gets set for further growth.

Stratton HR last week signed a significant deal with ABL 1touch to provide comprehensive HR Support services to the business over a two-year period. During this time Stratton HR will be responsible for developing and executing a full people plan across the business, at both a strategic and operational level.

ABL 1touch first worked with Stratton HR on a full organisational review, delivered by Stratton’s MD Anna Cornwallis, following the investment by Mobeus Equity Partners. ABL 1touch engaged Stratton HR at the end of last year to assist them with urgent recruitment and interim HR needs. During this time a successful partnership has developed, with Stratton HR effectively delivering all of their initial people requirements. Talks soon moved to retaining an outsourced HR function with the full expertise of the Stratton team to deliver all of their people needs. 

Tony Lawman joined ABL 1touch as CEO in January 2023 and has been surprised by the effectiveness of an outsourced HR function. “Until I met with Stratton HR, I had not considered the idea of completely outsourcing our HR needs. The team at Stratton HR has really got under the skin of our business and taken the time to embed into the team and so can deliver the best of both worlds – a true strategic partner with the depth and breadth of knowledge of a specialist team. We’re delighted that we have their ongoing support now as we embark on the ambitious growth phase of our 5 year strategy that will see us expand to over 60 repair sites in that time period. People will always be fundamental to our future success and with Stratton as our partner we know that our HR needs will be completely taken care of.”

Hannah Langston, Head of HR Support at Stratton HR is excited by the deal; “We’re very happy to have formalised our agreement with ABL 1touch. It’s testament to both the work we’ve delivered so far and the relationships we’ve built with the senior team and the whole team is excited about the future.” 

Anna Cornwallis, MD of Stratton HR adds “We look forward to working closely with ABL 1touch, as their people strategy forms a key part of their growth plans. This is a significant deal for Stratton HR and one we can’t wait to deliver on.”